Sometimes, I pick up on tiny fragments within news articles, which were intended to be simply filler—asides—that I recognize as actually representing something much bigger than what first meets the eye.  I found a quotation of this nature, yesterday, tucked away in the recesses of an article posted on ABC News.  The topic was Ron Paul's amazing 4.3 million dollar cash haul, Monday, which was instigated by private individuals, unaffiliated with the official campaign.

I think there is a lesson in these words from the article:

. . . "One of the things that the campaign has been doing well is that they haven't tried in any way to co-opt all of this activity and force it onto Ron Paul's own Web site. They've kind of let people do their own thing," said Julie Germany of The Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

"Clinton, Obama, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani — all of the other big candidates really try to force people to take actions onto their own site and they also try to funnel all of that online activity through their own channel so that they can control it, so that they can observe what is going on, so that they can keep a handle on things," she added. . . .

Read the full article: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=3826332&page=4

What some people—with overbearing tendencies—would see as dangerously permissive—to let all of these people "do their own thing" in support of the cause—actually demonstrates a key character trait of Ron Paul, as I see him!  It unveils what I believe is actually the MAIN source of Ron Paul's amazing ability, to inspire such an enthusiastic following—a rEVOLution that he is too humble to take credit for!  Here's his managerial and political secret: Ron Paul does not WANT to control everyone!  This is a BIG TIME principle!  I know, personally, that nothing in the world kills my own joy in a thing, more than when the thing starts 'cracking down' (controlling) on individuality, and on what the controller/s of said thing, see as inappropriate!  Pizzzzzzip!  My joy is GONE!  The thing is ruined for me, when control-freakish behavior begins to surface (it can even happen to Ron Paulites—I, too, am in danger of becoming the same type of control freak that I oppose—we all are)!

Am I alone?  I don't think so!  While I would never support anarchy (total absence of governance), 'control' can, however, become the world's nastiest little tyrant, if it isn't, itself, controlled (they call this control control, 'checks and balances', in government class).

Control, is one of the most basic of human instincts, but it easily runs amok in times like these, when John Q. Public can be fear-controlled, by whipping up the anxious fear of real or imagined dangers inside, and outside, of our society.  Control, has also been the instinct most to blame, for nearly every vicious evil that our world has ever witnessed—CONTROL.  Hitler was a control freak (elected democratically, and hailed by adoring duped masses in Germany, and around the world—even in America).  Mussolini was a control freak (about whom, people still comment, that he at least made the trains run on time), Pol Pot was a control freak, Saddam was, Charles Manson was, China is (and they like to use the same terms that OUR present government has fallen in love with, in order to suppress freedoms and to cover up government crimes against humanity—think 'state secrets').

But the funny thing is, that many of the world's worst dictators have had masses of enthusiastic followers who couldn't see the forest for the trees, because they were so enamored with the carefully choreographed perception, that their 'hero' could 'get the job done'!  WHAT job, is the serious question.

It is our own desire for a prerogative belonging to God alone—ABSOLUTE CONTROL—that has led to the worst abuses in recent centuries.  Combine this devilish instinct for creature-control, with the increased power of modern technology, and you have a recipe for holocaust and horror, the likes of which the ancient world could never have even imagined!  This is why the twentieth century was such a bloodbath; and as technology advances at breakneck speed, in new, more subtle, directions (think, INTERNET; a thing we are now communicating our most private thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, sympathies and 'effects' on), the ever-increasing abilities of government, should cause us to shudder, at where we are tending in THIS century!  But the gravest danger is not the bloodbath, this time 'round, but something, which left unchecked, could make 1984 end up looking like a book about 'the good old days' of privacy!

As the government seeks more and more of what it now dubs TOOLS, there should be a collective shudder across this land, and we SHOULD start remembering past regimes like Germany's National Socialist party (Nazi) regime, of the 1930s, because this TOOL-SEEKING is what has happened before!  Evil seldom announces itself up front—it almost always enters through the back door.  Come to think of it, evil seldom even recognizes ITSELF as evil, at least in the earlier stages.  I used to study Adolf Hitler with intense interest, to understand what had happened in Germany.  The most surprising thing I ever learned in my researches, was just how NORMAL Hitler seemed to be—not the monster of obvious evil, which has become our modern caricature—to our detriment—and which is the reason some misguided people claim that NOTHING can ever be compared to Hitler.  YES, it CAN!  Hitler's control instincts are as fundamental in human experience, as the desire for power, itself!  He is not so unique!  There are MANY of the same danger signals in AMERICA, and around the world, today, that if Germans had heeded back in the 1920's and 1930's, they might have derailed one of the greatest tragedies in human history!  Yes you CAN compare!  In fact, it is incompetence of a profoundest magnitude, to FAIL to measure our current events, against that particular yardstick of danger derived from the Nazi experiment!  Making the comparison, does not equal the assertion that we have YET gone the full distance that the Nazis went, in their LATER years, but are we to wait until that happens, to finally wake up?  If so, then, just as with the German public, our awakening will come too late!

I HOPE that I wasn't the only one shuddering, and aghast, as I listened to one of president Bush's BULLY-pulpit speeches last week, in which he was lambasting congress for working too slow, to give him "tools", and to make his "tools" permanent, which would ensure that people anywhere, whom he has prejudged as 'bad guys' (guilty, until proven innocent?) don't get any rights!  He even used terms like LIBERTY, to promote his destruction of the same!  The part that should make us really stop and think, however, is the part where he pointed out his deepest heartfelt desire as our leader: the desire to read minds!  THAT'S an instinct we want in the leader of the "FREE" world, now, ISN'T it???  His statement was that, "We want to read their minds; to know what they are thinking!"  Though he framed this in the context of presumed terrorists, it CERTAINLY stretches to EVERY person he has prejudged as guilty of something, until proven innocent, even in the United States!  This drive to be God on earth, does not bode well for ANYONE he takes a dislike to!  Naomi Wolf has written an analysis of the ten steps that are always taken by governments desirous to dismantle the troublesome 'rights and freedoms' of a democracy—to dismantle the democracy, and impose dictatorship, in one form or another, and from one degree to another.  The alarming thing about her analysis, however, is that she points out,

. . . each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States, by the Bush administration. . . .

Aren't you curious to know what those 10 steps are?  Read her complete insightful analysis at: http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/opedne_naomi_wo_071105_fascist_america_in_t.htm

The scary thing is that Ron Paul is nearly the only presidential candidate, besides Dennis Kucinich, who even seems to notice that we are slipping into the abyss of tyranny!  Many judges are clueless on this account (with notable exceptions), and our legislators seem to be duped, as well, or else too preoccupied with self-interest to defend America's fundamental liberties!

The biggest ineptitude of our legislative officials, in our day, is not that they are motivated by fear, but that they are motivated by the WRONG fear.  They seem to fear ONLY, the perception that they are 'weak' on things; weak on crime, weak on terror, weak on security, weak on patriotism, weak on immigration, weak on—basically—on CONTROL!  And while they keep on giving in to the bully in the white house, every time he whips up the fear of WEAKNESS, they are selling the real STRENGTH of America (our Bill of Rights), down the now popular Egyptian river: DE NILE.  What they SHOULD shudder at, they DON'T!  They do NOT shudder, for instance, at the thought of exempting massive corporations and massive government organizations, from ANY accountability for violating the constitution, which legislators are each sworn to uphold and defend!

I was shocked, recently, to have aides of my senator, Chuck Hagel, tell me that he voted FOR the eradication of accountability—past, present or future—for companies who violate (or ever DID violate) our sacred privacy rights, and that he voted FOR, a thinly veiled law that allows American citizens to be the targets of warrantless surveillance, so long as they know (or are assumed to know)—and communicate with—someone who lives outside of our borders!  I was shocked to learn about Hagel's constitutional ineptitude, because I had thought, once upon a time, that he actually CARED about the Bill of Rights—but apparently he does not! He appears to be just another politician, doing a lot of pretty talking.  Actions speak louder than words!  But he is SO not alone!  It is treasonous, what is happening in the dark recesses of congress, as I write!  It sickens me to keep watching C-Span any more—to watch clueless lawmakers sell the America I love (we ARE our principles), in order to purchase an elusive illusion of popularity (with WHOM?), which WILL NOT be realized, UNTIL they finally stand up to the BULLY-IN-CHIEF on the SPECIFIC ISSUE OF CIVIL LIBERTIES (not on a minor water bill)!

We assume, too often, that it takes a big person to keep a handle on things—to control things—but I assert that it is actually the weak and shrunken in personality, who are most prone to becoming control freaks!  Those who are the least sure of themselves, feel the greatest need to force compliance (I've grown to despise that word—a word ALSO used heavily in China).  It is the fearful person, who would rather chill all free expression, than to allow some input that might reflect badly on their own reputation or somehow reduce their power to control others (this is what our founders were reacting against, by ensuring freedom of speech in our Bill of Rights).  It is because they feel inadequate, in some way, to HANDLE the risky input inherent in free exchange and openness, that they start making lists of inappropriate behavior that always and ONLY grow bigger (and bigger), and always result in suppression of "dissidents".

It takes a really BIG person, to take the hands-off approach, when doing so will inevitably allow some who are considered 'crackpots', to have their say (remember that, to the English monarch, in 1776, our founding fathers were considered crackpots, who didn't deserve a voice).

(BTW, it is often the cracked pot that admits the most light!)

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all." 
  —  Thomas Jefferson

It distresses me to see, how even valuable things (big and little) instituted for freedom—to facilitate free exchange and individual rights, and the result of a revolt from tyranny, will often inevitably tend, after coming to grips with a few undesirable experiences (as big as terrorism, or as little as spam), to degenerate into just another control freak zone—a new form of tyranny, inviting a new form of revolt.  And the cycle goes round and round in history.  Yesterday's freedom fighters become today's tyrants, and unless we are ALL on our guard (including Ron Paul supporters), today's freedom fighters can also morph into tomorrow's tyrants.  Oh, how I HOPE our rEVOLution will cling tightly to its root principles of openness, tolerance and freedom!  Because it is JUST THE THING AMERICA NEEDS RIGHT NOW—a backing away from the control freak obsession that has possessed our government!

Though what I've described is a natural cycle of all movements, it is, none-the-less gravely repugnant and dangerous!  Beware!  Beware!  Ye Heralds of Liberty!  Remember that . . .

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
  —  Thomas Jefferson

I often hear the cry, "Ron Paul, control your followers!" "Paulites, control your fellow Paulites!"  And I say, NO, please DON'T try to control the followers!  We can reason with fellow followers, we can interact with them, but if we ever start trying to manipulate and herd them about, we will LOSE the principles that GOT Ron Paul his followers, in the first place!  I know there is a strong temptation, which only grows, as we go through a few bad experiences along the way, brought on by so-called Paul enthusiasts (such as the suspicious bot net attacks, variations of viewpoints, or even something as simple, as the much more innocent pro-Paul 'spam' on an online forum), and I see the trend toward our becoming like the mainstream campaigns, in cracking down on individualistic support of the Ron Paul rEVOLution.  I would remind everyone, that it is the spirit of overbearing control, which we are fighting in the first place.  Please, let's make every effort to take the high, hands-off, road of maximum liberty—and please remember, too, that we are all on the same team!  Our variety of perspectives and approaches, is our STRENGTH, and Ron Paul's strength, not a weakness!

America, as I write, is one big illustration of the danger of overreacting to real or perceived threats!  There have been a few bad experiences of late, and a few bad apples, and now old Uncle Sam has turned—under the present administration—into an assuming, oversensitive control freak!  He is insecure and feeling vulnerable, even from within.  So, instead of resorting to what has ALWAYS been his strength (the radically free individuality and creativity of his nieces and nephews), he has taken some bad advise, and has resorted to using liberty-destroying "TOOLS", to control everything in his power to control—even the every move (and THOUGHT) of his loyal—though sometimes critical—nieces and nephews (US), whom his paranoia is causing him to view as potential threats, themselves!  And as long as the uncle hides behind these "tools", he will only grow weaker and more paranoid with time.  He is getting so dependent on the artificial "tools", in fact, that he is now forgetting how to even flex his REAL muscles—his PRINCIPLES—and they are wasting away.

Posted by Paul Bear (www.RonPaulite.com)